Using desktop CNC to prototype scaled versions

Hi,

My partner and I are building an off-grid sustainable house (swedish countryside, architect plans at first revision, plot of land has been bought, etc). We are planning to use CNC plywood for a lot of the interior, furniture, etc [kitchen, beds, sofa, tables, storage shelves, outdoor seating, etc]. I'm an engineer and did hand coded g-code and CNC in my degree 25 years ago, and in recent years I've designed and built fixtures and furniture (cupboards, wardrobes, children's study desks / tables, etc) by having them cut at a local CNC shop (using egger board). I've built patios, bathrooms, etc. So all of this is within my competence and capacbility and doing our own CNC (we'll either buy or DIY a cnc machine, e.g. I see the maslow CNC ... but I would prefer a flatbed) is a really exciting part of the build. With the house build a year or two away, I've only just started to familiarise with CNC furniture. It's awesome !

What I want to do is design and prototype at small scale, e.g. using a ~40cm desktop CNC machine (like a bangood 318) at say a scale between 1:3 and 1:10. Means I can do it in our current small property (city centre) and over the next year or so incrementally do the designs, iterate and have them fairly stable. Then eventually the real thing.

I'm totally at the front of the learning curve and would be great to hear thoughts and pointers, recommendations, etc. especially if you've done or are doing this.

Thank you in advance!

Matthew

Hi Mathew - 1) Don't use the Maslow extremely slow and limited 2) if you want to prototype in scale a small chinese router will be fine. Just research and get familiar and buy the best value one that you can find. 2) When it comes time to design/build a cnc you are up for a long haul. So look at kits that suit then. Look at finding one second hand they will be best value and shortest time to making sawdust. Decide your budget and look for it over time. You may find a bargain and put it into storage until you have space. Designing and building your own is a tough gig first time round. Only build a machine if that's what you want to do as it will take a long time to do that and you won't have any furniture for maybe a year.... Just look at the build blogs here and look at the timelines takes a long time to sort a design and get parts and debug etc....I've built three and it still takes a long time to get a new machine from paper to sawdust...Peter